WIAW - Taste of Windermere

After last week's series on healthy eating, I seem to be on the other side of the spectrum for this week's What I Ate Wednesday.


A healthy diet is balanced with variety & moderation, so I don't feel guilty about the treats I indulged in at last weekend's Taste of Windermere event.


The Taste of Windermere was a food-tasting, charity event on the lake in Windermere. There were about 35 different food vendors there from the local area as well as some wine & beer too. The event benefited the Central Florida Women's League.  
We were invited by one of Kyle's clients and we saw several more of his clients there as well...all practicing a fit lifestyle and indulgences in moderation! :)
We didn't have a game plan for the evening.  It was just to eat & enjoy.  So that's what we did.

Our first stop was ironically at the booth of the place we had dinner on Sunday, Yellow Dog Eats.  I had pulled pork and their balsamic salad. As I'm sure you guessed..it was great!

Next was a roasted scallop and quinoa salad from Oceanaire Seafood.  I think it must be hard to mass produce "small plates" in this kind of environment, because the scallop was just average. Definitely fishy and plain.  I was, however happy to see the use of quinoa! If you're a new reader I ADORE quinoa! They added some herbs and it was a refreshing side.

Nutrition note - quinoa is one of a very few complete sources of vegetarian protein. Meaning it has all of the 9 essential amino acids that your body can't make.


Our next taste was a real BBQ showdown! There's a VERY popular BBQ joint in Orlando called 4 Rivers. Kyle & I have never been, but we hear rave reviews all the time. 

Our chance to taste 4 Rivers...and compare it to Yellow Dog was finally here! Both places served up pulled pork (both of which I ate sans bun...white bread is never okay..haha).

The 4 Rivers pork definitely had the smokiness down and their sauce had a nice sweetness to it.  They had a cheese grit cake which was CRAZY good! But in the end I prefered the tangy taste of the Yellow Dog BBQ.  Have you had either? 

On a side note, I bravely wore white jeans to a food event.  Seriously? There was only a tee-tiny BBQ stain at the end of the night! haha!
Other tastes we enjoyed included spanikopita, hummus, and a lamb meatball (Kyle) from Taverna Opa. Kyle enjoyed several beef dishes from Morton's, Il Mulino, and Maggiano's. I don't think there was a single chicken dish here!  Boo!

Happy beef eater.

Finally it was time for the dessert round. I secretly really have a sweet tooth. And I secretly love cake.  All cake.  Even grocery store sheet cake. Eek!
I managed to exhibit some restraint and enjoyed a delicious chocolate cake pop from Cake in the City. It was a good choice! It was chocolately and moist inside.  Cake pops are fast rising up my "fave desserts" list.

After that we enjoyed some wine and the beautiful evening!

Have you ever been to a food tasting event?


Love and small plates,
Carissa & Kyle